MOSCOW, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A senior pro-Russian rebel leader involved in talks with Kiev said on Thursday that if Ukrainian forces abide by a ceasefire in east Ukraine, rebel forces might also do so, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

"If there is a real ceasefire on their part, then maybe we will also cease fire," Andrei Purgin, a leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic who is due to hold preliminary peace talks with Kiev in Minsk on Friday, told the agency. "We will see how they observe their ceasefire," (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Editing by Timothy Heritage)